She can hear its a miracle!!!!

I had been thinking a while that Mary has not been quite getting the hearing. She seemed to not hear me calling her all the time. She woudl only register after a few attempts and with me making my voice loud and deep.

After the session on Wednesday she seems a lot more responsive. She wore her processors happily at the raised volume in the canteen. At home she turns on the first call of her name. We have a toy aeroplane which makes two noises. The propeller start up noise is easier to get going than the engine running noise. She was playing with the propeller noise happily setting it going again and again when it stopped. I pressed the button for the other noise and she stopped and stared. Clearly she heard that it was different. Now I love and hate that aeroplane all in the same breath. She loves it. Oh well all good for her development.

Tuning session at the Emmeline

On Wednesday the 20th May we went for a 9/10 month tuning session. Following the plpay session ast week this was a stunning session. Mary was a little poppet. She did the hearing test very well. Not always responding appropriately but she was trying and did not have any fuss or screaming. She did have a little moment when she wanted her Bird (right processor) on and the would not let her as she was having her left ear tested. She responded at 1kHz at 60 dB.

Following the hearing test we had a tune up. Mary didnt mind having the wire connected and played very nicely while the audiologist fiddled. She was a wondeful child to be with. I was so proud of her.
Well done Mary.

Horses....

On Monday we had the pleasure of the company of Mary's Hiccups friends at Easton Farm Park. We had a lovely day and the weather held out much better than Sunday at Thetford.

We saw rabbits, guinea pigs, big Suffolk Punch Horse called Mary who is also 2 years old and needs to learn her manners. Mary had many rides on the horse and trap and also on a pony. She was quite happy to go without Mummy or Daddy or Big sister. She wanted to swim in the fountain. It is very nice to see that she enjoys being with other people and does not worry about new places or strangers. Will cause me heartache when I have to start the "Stranger Danger" conversations but for now lovely to watch her confidence. Lots of signing of the animals and a generally very fun day.

Mary Suffolk Punch

Guinea Pig Bash.. Sorry patting

Horse and trap ride. Mary had in excess of 6 turns round the farm.

Mary on her first pony ride. She was very good at waiting her turn. There were two girls in front of her in the queue and although they were physically behind her while we were waiting she easily understood the "Their turn" sign, flick your thumbs up to the person whose turn it is. What a clever girl. She signed horse very enthusiastically.

Banana Mummy

Mary came over to me in the kitchen. Signing something. Took me a while to get it. It was the sign for banana (mime yourself peeling a banana).

First time I recall her coming over to me and asking for something.

She is really taking off with sign this week and her vocalisations are getting more complex. I am trying to record it for this record but as soon as I get the camera out she goes quiet.

On another note, got a confession to make. I was wondering why we had not seen our speech and language therapist. Saw her at my sign class last night. Turns out it was my fault. I have missed two sessions. Oops Apologies. Will be in next week.

Family Fun day at Thetford

Ned the bear at Thetford with NDCS. We had a lovely day with other families with deaf children.

Think Mary wants to go back to climb all the big trees and swings.

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Following our visit to the Emmeline Centre on the previous day, we took Katy to School. Mary was in her pram facing away from me as usual. Katy and I had been chattering also as usual and Mary was singing. Then I decided to sing Baa Baa Black Sheep to her. She stopped singing and turned her face up to look at me. We have three verses to our song: The boy, The girl and The dog who live down the lane. By the time I finsished the first two versus she was signing "Again" ( Flick two fingers of dominant hand down). Brilliant listening that day. Just goes to prove my theory about her overall desire to listen. Only on her terms.

Play at the Emmeline.

We had a play visit to the Emmeline Centre on Wednesday last week. Our friend Gavin was attending for other reasons and we had an appointment in the Metabolic unit in the afternoon. It seemed like a good opportunity to take Mary along for a play. She usually just screams when we get there and it is very difficult for the audiologist to tune Mary appropriately.

When we arrived one of her Legups friends was there in the corridor. She seemed happy to see him but refused to get out of her pram. Indeed when I unfastened the straps she signed for them to be refastened.

Our Speech and Language rehabilitaionist (?) organised for her 1pm appointment girl to come in early. Thank you to them for their help. As they went into the room I made to get Mary out of the pram and she screamed. But as the room was set up for play she soon came round with only a few suspcious glances. We played some nice sound games designed to ease her anxiety and get her to listen. We sang Baa Baa Black Sheep at the end. Her face was funny when we just got up and walked out. We will se how she goes this Wednesday when she has to have a tunign session. I think she is in need of this desperately. But unless she performs properly at the hearing test they cannot fully adjust her sound input to match what she can hear.

Oh well Fun and games as usual with Mary.

I think however that even if she had perfect hearing she would not be a good listener. Good session all round.

Flower Mummy

Sorry for not posting this. It occured last week on Thursday.

Mary is gettign very good at poiting out the flowers now and we are movign onto the colours of flowers. She can sign yellow, for a buttercup and white and purple for some flowers that I have no idea what they are.

She is also getting very good at listening and locating aircraft in the sky. Necessary given her Daddy's job.

Non Verbal/sign Communication

Today we were at Gavin's house (you can follow Gavin here http://www.songavger.blogspot.com/). I was watching him and Mary playing in his garden. Gavin does sign and is very good with Mary. This was the first time at his house and she went straight in and looked like she owned the place. They have a large Trampoline in the garden and Mary knew exactly how to get Gavin to put her on and bounce her around. She had no problems communicating her needs. She used some signs and Gavin did encourage her to sign when he could get her attention. But Mary is very clever at communicating her needs in her own way. Afterall what is communication. In one sense it is the art of getting another person to do our bidding. She certainly excels at that.

I dont know if this hinders or helps Mary's formal language development this ability to get what she wants. However as it is communication it is lovely to see.

Thank goodness with all that bouncing we did not have trouble getting her to bed tonight.

Toast

Breakfast at Grandma's on Sunday was replayed to me by Daddy upon his return Sunday evening.

Mary was sat after her cereal at the table patiently or otherwise waiting to go and play. She kept raising both hands up in the air, fingers up, palms towards the chest. "Toast"
Grandma asks what it is she is doing. Daddy informs her it is the sign for Toast.
Grandma says OK if she wants toast I shall go and makes some. She toddles off to the kitchen as dutiful Grandma's are want to do. Mary continues signing toast.

A few minutes later Grandma returns with desired item. And signs toast.

Mary looks at it agrees with Grandma, signs "Toast" and then leaves the table with a nod.

This is so Mary. Just checking if you would obey my command. And of course Grandma would.

Swimming and shopping with Daddy

Daddy has taken Mary and big sister away to Grandma's for the night to allow me some free time with my friends. Very nice.

Teh plan was to go swimming at Grandma's pool, because they have a lovely set of water slides that Mary loves. Needless to say in the rush of packing yesterday I forgot to put the swimming gear in the car. But as the girls costumes were a little threadbare and Mike's a little old I said they should just get some new ones.

I received the following text from Daddy earlier this morning:-

"buying a swimsuit wound Mary up something rotten. She wouldnt take it off after we tried it on. Screamed the roof off when I took it off to pay."

Shows how Mary knows what she wants and and will let little stand in her way. Be nice to hear how they all got on.

Legups - Preschool group

Mary has started this term attending the next step up from Hiccups, called Legups (Language Enrichment Group Up to Primary School). The session runs at a Primary School in Bury St Edmunds, the nearest town to us where there is a Unit for Hearing Impaired Children (HIU). The session is run for three year olds until they go into the Year 1. It aims to build on language skills, social interaction and builds their confidence being away from Mum and in the school environment. Not that our Mary needs the confidence building. Sessions are on Tuesday and Friday afternoons for 2 hours.

Mary only goes on the Friday at the moment because she is not yet 3 and still goes to the Hiccups group. We jsut felt that Mary needed a little extra and as they were happy to have her start now we were happy to send her.

Last Friday I left her with my friend, who has been asked in as a teaching assistant. The one whose house we went to on Wednesday. Mary did not even bother that I was not there.

Alternate Fridays there is a session where the parents are invited in to watch the chldren present theri work. It is very nice. The older hearing impaired children of the school also come along to show a piece of work and discuss the work. The emphasis is on talking where the children are capapble but any communication from the children is encouraged. Mary was tired when I first went into the room and she wanted to sit and cuddle Mummy. The other chldren were sat on a low bench in front of the parents. The teacher would pick a child and then bring them to the front to discuss their topic. Then the child would walk round the room and show the parents and other children the piece of work.

Mary watched this for about half the children (6). Then she hopped off my knee and went to get her playdough model, that the younger ones had done ealier and were showing off. She stood with the teacher for a short time and then walked round the room to show the others her work. It was wonderful to see her interacting in this way. She had observed what was going on and wanted to copy. I was so proud. Times like this make me worry less about her abillity to cope in the wider world when she gets there. Perhaps I should worry more about the World coping with Mary!!